


three times amethyst orders and one time pearl does

by reptilianunderwear



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Generic coffee shop au, Human AU, amethyst likes pearl's pies almost as much as she likes pearl's face, amethyst works at a tattoo parlor accross the street, and ultimate wingman, garnet is a tattoo artist, implied eating disorder, jasper is amethyst's big sis, lapidot is background, lapis is a killer barista, no one is white and no one is straight, pearl makes all the pastries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-10
Updated: 2015-07-10
Packaged: 2018-04-08 17:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4313577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reptilianunderwear/pseuds/reptilianunderwear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time they meet, she’s a blur of chestnut skin and purple hair barreling through the tiny glass door with a grin that splits her entire face. Pearl’s first impression is of chaos and disorder and she knows this girl is going to be nothing but trouble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	three times amethyst orders and one time pearl does

**Author's Note:**

> this started as a small "so pearl canon likes pies but hates to eat.................. human anorexic baker pearl" and then amethyst showed up and now it's really dumb and really gay
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I am not hijabi or hindu so if i did smth wrong with peri or pearl let me know PLS
> 
> EDIT: haha thanks for over 1000 hits !!!!

            The first time they meet, she’s a blur of chestnut skin and purple hair barreling through the tiny glass door with a grin that splits her entire face. Pearl’s first impression is of chaos and disorder and she knows this girl is going to be nothing but trouble.

            She marches up the counter in front of Pearl, leaning forward and smudging her fingers all over the sparkling glass. It takes all of Pearl’s willpower to keep from shooing her away.

            “I’ll take one of those strawberry things… and that muffin lookin’ thing… do you have anything chocolate? I’ll take one of those!” she says, pointing to each individual pastry with gusto. Pearl can’t take her eyes away from the purple-haired woman’s lips. “And… just give me a grande of the pumpkinest frappuccino you have,”

            Pearl nods tersely, taking a clear plastic cup from the stack next to the register and a sharpie from her apron pocket. “Name?” she asks, voice coming off a lot more clipped than she means it to.

            “Amethyst,” the purple-haired girl tells her, and Pearl nods, scribbling it down on the cup. Her cheeks feel very warm all of a sudden, and she busies herself with preparing the frappuccino.

            “This place is pretty cute,” Amethyst muses, leaning over the counter on her elbows, balancing her chin on her fist. “Shoulda come here sooner. My sister told me about this place, said her ex was the barista. That you?”

            Pearl doesn’t pause in her frappuccino making. “Oh, no, I’m not really the barista. Lapis is—she’s on break now, next door. Who’s your sister?” she asks, trying to think back to when Lapis might have ever mentioned a partner.

            “Her name’s Jasper,” Amethyst says easily. Pearl thinks, turning to face Amethyst and spray a heavy dose of whipped cream onto the pumpkin concoction. She recalls vaguely a large and menacing woman coming into the shop quite regularly a while ago, and she and Lapis had been close… That must be Jasper. Pearl hadn’t even realized they were a couple.

            “Yes, I think I remember. She had quite… a lot of hair,” Pearl remarks, sprinkling pumpkin spice over the frappuccino. Amethyst laughs, a loud, jovial sort of laugh, and Pearl smiles a little.

            “Sounds like her!” She snorts, her nose wrinkling up. Pearl’s smile twitches, but she quickly reins it in. “I like your jewel thing,” Amethyst tells her, gesturing to her own forehead area.

            That takes Pearl by surprise. Jewel thing? What did she— “Oh! My bindi! Thank you,”

            Amethyst nods enthusiastically, and Pearl really does smile this time, leaning forward to pull Amethyst’s pastries from the display and tuck them in a neat paper bag. Eagerly, Amethyst takes her order, handing Pearl a twenty.

            “Thanks, Pearl!” she calls behind her as she leaves, kicking open the door. For a second, Pearl is bewildered as to how Amethyst knows her name, but then realizes that she’s wearing a nametag. Oh. That makes sense.

            Almost as soon as Amethyst leaves, Lapis comes in from her break, glancing between the retreating customer and the flushed cashier. A stupid, smarmy grin crosses her face and she wiggles her eyebrows in a much undignified manner, and Pearl rolls her eyes.

            

* * *

  


            The second time they meet is exactly three days later, and Lapis’s current girlfriend is lounging on the counter, tapping away on her cell phone, Lapis trying in vain to gain her attention.

            “Peri, Peri, Peri, _Peri_ ,” Lapis says, poking Peridot in the ribs and flicking at the soft fabric of her hijab. Peridot sighs, eyes flicking up to the ceiling as if she’s praying for the strength to not kill her girlfriend. “Peri, I’m _bored_ ,”

            Pearl tries to ignore them, flipping through her book absently. It’s not particularly engaging, but she reads it anyway. Anything to keep herself from focusing on Lapis and Peridot being annoyingly affectionate.

            “Do your job, Lapis,” Peridot says, still focused on her phone. Lapis sighs dramatically and leans back, groaning. Pearl snorts a little over her book.

            “But no one’s _heeeere_!” Lapis protests. As if by some divine act, the welcome bell tingles, and Pearl scrambles to put her book down.

            It’s Amethyst, chattering animatedly at a tall, elegant woman with a large afro. When Amethyst catches sight of Pearl, she stops, mid-sentence, and waves eagerly. Pearl, taken by surprise, waves back, albeit far less enthusiastically.

            “Hey, Pearl!” she says, bounding over to the counter. Her friend follows much slower, a tiny, amused smile on her face. “Can I have another one of those pumpkin things?”

            Pearl nods, grabbing a cup and scribbling Amethyst’s name on it. Then she remembers the friend. “Did you want anything?” she asks the tall woman.

            “Coffee. Black,” says the afro woman, voice low and rich. Amethyst makes a snorting sound.

            “Hardcore, Garnet,” she teases, nudging her friend with her shoulder. Garnet’s smile gets a little bigger, but not much.

            Pearl passes the cups to Lapis, who had abandoned her fruitless quest to get Peridot to pay her attention in favor of, as suggested, doing her job. “What pumpkin thing?” she asks, confused by the vagueness.

            “Pearl knows what I’m talkin’ about,” Amethyst says, and Pearl is a little embarrassed by how chummy Amethyst is for having only met her once. Pearl sputters, clears her throat, and speaks.

            “Pumpkin spice frappe,” she mumbles, doing her best to avoid eye contact by ringing up the order. Lapis nods and glances between Pearl and Amethyst, mischief glittering in her eyes. Thankfully, she doesn’t say anything embarrassing. “That’s six fifty,”

            Garnet pays with a debit card, silent, and Lapis hands the two patrons their coffees. Amethyst thanks her and Garnet offers a curt nod of gratitude and then they’re gone. Pearl releases the breath she’d been holding, and realizes that Peridot and Lapis are both staring at her.

            “What?!” She demands, to which Lapis makes that stupid face and Peridot chuckles behind her hand.

  


* * *

  


            The third time they meet, it’s raining and Lapis left early, the useless freeloader. That left Pearl alone, with nothing but the sound of the rain to accompany her. Mild resentment wells up with each passing minute. Stupid Lapis, ducking out early to go make out with Peridot or something.

            The welcome bell goes almost unnoticed in the sounds of the downpour, and it’s not until Amethyst shakes her massive hair like a dog, startling Pearl into paying attention, that she snaps herself out of her sea of disgruntledness.

            “Man, I’m soaking wet!” Amethyst says, and then realizes what she said and scrambles to cover it up. Pearl’s face flushes completely and she covers her mouth, scandalized. “Wait—I didn’t mean—oooooh, man,”

            Amethyst covers her face with her hands, laughing at her own slip up. Peal wishes she could laugh it off like that, but it’s too much for her and she is only able to stand there, mortified.

            “I’m so sorry—I didn’t mean like that. Anyways, do you guys have hot chocolate?” Amethyst shakes off her blunder so easily, Pearl is jealous.

            “Yes,” she manages to squeak, and Amethyst snickers good-naturedly at the embarrassing pitch. Pearl is deep scarlet by now, beyond mortified.

            “And make one for yourself—it’s freezing in here!” Amethyst adds, rubbing her bare arms for emphasis. Pearls silently agrees, even though she’s wearing three shirts and a sweater.

            “I really don’t need one—” she begins, preparing Amethyst’s hot chocolate.

            “No objections—it’s too cold in here for you to not have something warm to drink. Don’t worry about it, it’s on me,” Amethyst says, waving off Pearl’s protests. Pearl bites her tongue, and decides it’s better not to argue.

            It only takes a few minutes to make two hot chocolates, and Amethyst chatters away the whole time about meaningless things—how great Pearl’s pastries were, how slow work had been that day, the crazy weather.

            “Wait, where do you work?” Pearl asks, handing one hot chocolate to Amethyst. Amethyst sends a confused look at Pearl.

            “The tattoo parlor, across the street!” she says, incredulous.

            “Oh!” Pearl says, faking a sip at her hot chocolate. “Are you a tattoo artist?”

            “Ha! No, no, I just do piercings. Why, you want one?” Amethyst wiggles her eyebrows.

            “Maybe one day. I don’t know, though, I hear they hurt,” Pearl muses, tapping her fingers along her paper mug.

            “They do! ‘Specially if you do ‘em to yourself,” Amethyst sticks out her tongue, showing off a dark purple sphere resting on it. A tongue piercing! Pearl winces at the thought, and Amethyst laughs, sheathing her tongue.

            They chat on and on for hours and hours about everything—Pearl finds out that Amethyst likes to dance, and is very excited until she finds out that it’s hip hop, not ballet. Amethyst finds out that Pearl loves to bake and cook, which is why she makes all the pastries for the café every morning. They both like Kpop, though Amethyst not as much as Pearl. Pearl never touches her drink again, and Amethyst doesn’t seem to notice.

            Closing time sneaks up on Pearl quicker than expected, and Amethyst stays all the way up to the time Pearl locks the door. They live on opposite ends of the city, so they part ways then, but Pearl smiles the entire walk home.

  


* * *

  


            The fourth time they meet, it’s a surprise to both of them.

            Pearl feels terribly out of place in the tattoo parlor, which is surprisingly sterile, but still darker than she would enjoy. Garnet, the tattoo artist, is lounging at the counter, flipping through a magazine. When she catches sight of Pearl, looking lost on the threshold, she smiles.

            “Coffee girl,” Garnet says, as a way of greeting. Pearl jumps, and Garnet laughs, calling off into the recesses of the parlor. “Amethyst! Your barista’s here!”

            Amethyst tumbles from behind a row of earrings, the shelf rattling dangerously, and lights up when she spots Pearl. Pearl waves, a small, shy gesture. Amethyst bounces over, hair flying behind her.

            “Hey! You here for a piercing?” Amethyst asks, looking hopeful. Pearl shakes her head, taking a deep breath and steeling herself.

            “No. I was—I was wondering if you, maybe, wanted to grab a coffee. Or something. Together,” She manages, tripping over her words. She can feel her face heating up again, and her heart drops to the floor when Amethyst laughs.

            “Weird marketing strategy you got, P!” she says, chortling. Pearl stammers and stutters, trying to explain that _no, that’s not what I meant_ —

            “Amethyst,” Garnet’s voice is low, but tinged with amusement. “She means _together_ ,”

            Amethyst flushes even darker than Pearl, who refuses to look anywhere but her feet. Amethyst, for once, is at a loss for words. But then her face splits again and Pearl can feel the warmth radiating from her smile. “Yeah! Yeah, I’d like that,”  

            Pearl looks up so quickly that it gives her whiplash, and she grins, widely and toothily, mirroring Amethyst’s smile. Garnet looks on, arms crossed, with a look of satisfaction on her face— Jasper owes her twenty bucks.                  

**Author's Note:**

> peri is hijabi and middle eastern, lapis and pearl are south aisian, amethyst and jasper are mexican, and garnet is black


End file.
